Both James Madison and James Monroe expressed the opinion “that to coerce a seceding State would be suicidal to freedom.” Had the New England States seceded as they wished several times in the early 1800’s to pursue their more perfect union, “no blood would have been shed to force them back into a Union she detested.” Under Lincoln’s reconstituted and misnamed Federalist party in 1861, the fraternal Union of the Founders came to an end.

“In the convention of 1787 the question of secession and coercion was up for discussion. [James] Madison said: “A Union of States with such an ingredient as coercion would seem to provide for its own destruction.”

It certainly would provide for the destruction of the principles of liberty itself. Looked at in the lurid light of the [18]60’s, one expression…of President Madison will make the reader pause and reflect a moment. The “feeble debility of the South could never face the vigorous activity of the North.”

The Republican party had inherited from its progenitor, the Federal [party], the above idea of the South’s feeble debility. Members of that party invited United States Senators and Congressmen to take their wives and daughters out to see the first fight of the war, especially to “see rebels run at the sight of Union soldiers.” Everybody knows how the rebels ran at Bull Run.

Republican officers of the Union army have expressed their opinion of the South’s “feeble debility.” General Don Piatt, a Union officer, on this subject has this:

“The true story of the late war,” wrote General Piatt in 1887, “has not yet been told. It probably never will be told. It is not flattering to our people; unpalatable truths seldom find their way into history. How rebels fought the world will never know; for two years they kept an army in the field that girt their borders with a fire that shriveled our forces as they marched in, like tissue paper in a flame. Southern people were animated by a feeling that the word fanaticism feebly expresses. (Love of liberty expresses it.)

For two years this feeling held those rebels to a conflict in which they were invincible. The North poured out its noble soldiery by the thousands, and they fought well, but their broken columns and thinned lines drifted back upon our capital, with nothing but shameful disasters to tell of the dead, the dying, the lost colors and the captured artillery. Grant’s road from the Rapidan to Richmond was marked by a highway of human bones. The Northern army had more killed than the Confederate Generals had in command.”

“We can lose five men to their one and win,” said Grant. The men of the South, half starved, unsheltered, in rags, shoeless, yet Grant’s marches from the Rapidan to Richmond left dead behind him more men than the Confederates had in the field!

The Reverend H.W. Beecher preached a sermon in his church on the “Price of Liberty”…[and] astonished his congregation by illustrations from the South:

“”Where,” exclaimed the preacher, “shall we find such heroic self-denial, such upbearing under every physical discomfort, such patience in poverty, in distress, in absolute want, as we find in the Southern army? They fight better in a bad cause than you do in a good one; they fight better for a passion than you do for a sentiment. They fight well and bear up under trouble nobly, they suffer and never complain, they go in rags and never rebel, they are in earnest for their liberty, they believe in it, and if they can they mean to get it.”

“Lincoln’s low estimate of humanity,” says Piatt, “blinded him to the South. He could not understand that men would fight for an idea. He thought the South’s [independence] movement a sort of political game of bluff.”

Hannibal Hamlin said: “The South will have to come to us for arms, and come without money to pay for them.” “And for coffins,” said John P. Hale, with a laugh. “To put a regiment in the field,” said Mr. Speaker Banks, “costs more than the entire income of an entire Southern State.”

It was not long before the men of the North found that the South’s soldiers supplied themselves with arms and clothing captured from Union soldiers.”

(Facts and Falsehoods Concerning the War on the South, 1861-1865, George Edmunds, Spence Hall Lamb, 1904, pp. 117-119)========Southern Love of Liberty

There are three issues that could presently trigger a Civil War in America:

Illegal aliens. A government that refuses to protect our borders, the methodical structure of citizenship, and the rule of law, will only be tolerated for so long. America is reaching a tipping point on this issue.

Abortion. Irreconcilable differences here. This may likely become as potent an issue as slavery was in the 1860s.

"Super-Charged with Conservative ideals REAL Americans all over the country and even an awakened Democrat or two are now participating in this grass roots initiative. Its not a partisan issue either, no one can afford these rising prices at the gas pump or the grocery store.

I just realized that I need to order more FREE PRE-PRINTED Sticky notes from the Koch Brothers -- gotta go now."

Via Don, L&P========"I like this idea.

Please find attached a template.

This works well on laser printers. Print the sheet. Stick your 3 x 3 sticky notes over the top and run it again.

"This Cracked commenter's explanation of why college is worthwhile is more than a little amusing:

College sucked for the first two years for me (as in I was one phone call away from talking to an Army recruiter) but then I ended up studying abroad for a semester, meeting some really cool people and professors and took classes in my major (Rhetoric) which were really eye opening and awesome. I started out as a judgmental hyper-conservative p***k and four years later, here I am graduating in three weeks as a well rounded, tolerant atheist. I don't mean to toot my own horn (although if I could, I would, heh heh) but I'm certainly much better off, mentally, than I was before college. To me that's what makes my mountain of debt worth it.So, there's some good news and some bad news, Mom and Dad."

Politics Buzz"Well, that didn't take long. All of the purported inconsistencies and mysterious anomalies with President Obama's long form birth certificate. And this is only within the first few hours of the document's release. Give the Birthers a few days to come up with some really juicy stuff"

MEMPHIS, TN -- Family and friends visiting paralyzed Korean War veteran Perry Thrasher in his room at the Veterans' Administration Hospital in Memphis say hospital police "harassed and threatened" them, temporarily confiscated their cameras and removed pictures from them Wednesday.

The hospital police said they were acting in accordance with a "VA policy" which they would not name or explain, witnesses say.

Several people were in Thrasher's room taking pictures of black Confederate activist H. K. Edgerton visiting Thrasher and presenting him with a full-sized Confederate battle flag. Earlier this month, hospital administrators had demanded that Thrasher, the grandson of a Confederate soldier who died at the Battle of Petersburg, remove a miniature Confederate flag he had placed on the wall inside his own hospital room and put it away it in a drawer because it "offended" unnamed staff and patients.

News of the hospital's action went viral on the Internet and has sent waves of outrage through the South and beyond. Well-wishers have sent Thrasher dozens of letters and cards of encouragement, many containing tiny Confederate flags. The Sons of Confederate Veterans has made him a life member. And The Southern Legal Resource Center and Memphis Attorney T. Tarry Beasley II have sent a letter on behalf of Thrasher to Memphis VA Hospital Director Jay Robinson, demanding that the hospital cite any legal authority they rely on for banning Thrasher's flag from his private room, an action which the SLRC says is in gross violation of the hospital's own Patient Bill of Rights. The letter also demands an explanation of the "policy" under which the hospital police seized the cameras and removed the pictures.

"It's disgraceful that a veteran who defended his country should betreated in this manner in a Veterans Administration Hospital where the protections of the Bill of Rights should theoretically apply," said Edgerton, himself a Vietnam era veteran.

"Mr. Thrasher displayed his flag to honor the memory of his Great Grandfather, Sgt. Gilbert Thrasher, Co I, 44th Alabama Infantry Regiment who died of wounds received in action at the Siege of Petersburg. We support Mr.Thrasher's stand to honor his ancestor's sacrifice." said Forrest Camp member Karl Amelang.

"This type of outrageous infringement should not happen to a veteran, in> America, in a federal facility," said attorney Beasley.

"Ever since this story broke three weeks ago, there has been widespread support and sympathy for Mr. Thrasher. The VA needs to do the right thing and let him display his flag," said Lyons, who is the SLRC's Chief Trial Counsel.

The Southern Legal Resource Center is a non-profit public law firm that advocates on behalf of persons whose civil rights have been infringed in connection with Southern heritage issues.

"At the battle of Second Manassas Col. Barnes placed me in command of the Infirmary Corps in which capacity I served until a few days before the battle of Gettysburg when I was presented with a long-range Whitworth rifle with a telescope and globe sights and with a roving commission as an independent sharpshooter and scout. This rifle killed Gen. Sedgwick at Spottsylvania Court House."

Remembrance

Execution of Colonel Ho Ngoc CanLast words: "If I won the war, I would not condemn you as you have condemned me.I would not humiliate you as you have humiliated me.I would not ask you questions that you asked me.I fought for the freedom of my people.I have merit and I am not guilty.No one can convict me.History will criticize you as my Communist enemy.You want to kill me, then kill me.Do not blindfold me.Down with the Communists.Long live the Republic of Viet Nam !"

Colonel CraigMandeville:

“They wanted the people to see that he was dead,” said Craig Mandeville, an American adviser to the South Vietnamese army who fought side by side with Can. “He was believed to be some sort of invincible guy. The North Vietnamese thought that, too, and I even thought that when I fought with him.”

“He said, ‘OK, the country’s fallen, but by God we’re still South Vietnamese and we’re free,’ ” Mandeville recalled. “So he went down to Chuong Tien province and rounded up all these soldiers down there to form a Free Vietnam.”

Col. Can didn’t live long after that, but the legacy of his struggle lives on.

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Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
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My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
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My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
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*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
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*The Attack On Fort Stedman
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"His Colored Friends"
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Lee's Surrender
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My Black NC Kinfolks
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Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.